The first biography is a "short version," which includes a combination of bullet points listing his credentials and a few short paragraphs.
The second is the "long version," which is actually even more interesting than the first one. Because it reads like a story — a compelling one, at that. In fact, it gets really funny at parts. The second sentence of the bio reads: "He was frightened of public school, loved playing baseball and football, ran home to watch ape films on the Movie, listened to The Jam and The Buzzcocks, and read magic trick books. Of course, the fantastic copywriting isn't a surprise, given that this guy wrote several books.
But the conversational tone and entertaining copy let his quirky personality and great writing skills shine. With a classic take on the professional bio, Audra Simpson crafts a brief overview of her career in just a couple of paragraphs. This subtle timeline gives readers a picture of her experience in the field of political anthropology without listing her resume in detail. Marie Mikhail checks off nearly every box for what makes an excellent bio.
A professional recruiter, she expresses her "passion for recruiting" upfront, in the first sentence, while using that sentence to hook her profile visitors into a brief story of her background.
But there are a lot of recruiters out there, and Marie knows that. So, to differentiate herself, she closes the first paragraph of her bio explaining that she likes "getting people excited about the things [she's] excited about. Marie Mikhail finishes off her bio by including a smooth mixture of professional skills, such as her Spanish fluency; and personal interests, such as podcasting and Star Wars she mentions the latter with just the right amount of humor.
What does this mean for his professional bio? He has to prioritize. With this in mind, Wonbo opens his bio with the most eye-catching details first if the image below is hard to read, click it to see the full copy. Not only does Wonbo's bio start strong, but he also takes readers on a suspenseful journey through some of his most harrowing assignments — where he was when news broke and how he responded.
You can see this quality below. The accomplished journalist concludes his gripping bio as strong as it began, measuring his experience by the number of states, countries, and continents to which he's traveled in his career.
See how this looks above. All in all, it's a fantastically concise bio for as much detail as it holds. If you're writing your bio but having trouble figuring out how to showcase your accomplishments without boasting, photographer Burkard's LinkedIn bio is a great example for inspiration. Written in third-person, his bio tells a fluid story, starting with his ultimate mission — "capture stories that inspire humans to consider their relationship with nature" — before diving into more tangible accolades giving a TED talk, publishing books, etc.
Best of all, rather than using his bio as an opportunity to brag, he instead ties his talents into how he hopes to help others , writing, "Through social media Chris strives to share his vision … and inspire [his followers] to explore for themselves. I wouldn't necessarily be inclined to follow Chris if his bio had simply read "I post beautiful images" … but inspire me to travel?
Now that's something I can get behind. Lastly, he ends on a humble, sweet note, writing "He is happiest with his wife Breanne raising their two sons". Don't be afraid to inject some personal information into your bio — it could help you seem more approachable as a result.
Although a picture is worth 1, words, a portfolio is quite different from a professional bio. While this might present a challenge for creative professionals who specialize in visual art to tell their stories, Lisa Quine quantifies her creativity to give her professional bio balance. She begins with her full name, her location, and what she does best. With a third-person approach to the writing, this bio invites the reader behind a metaphorical door to meet Lisa as a professional, traveler, learner, wife, and mother.
As Founder and CEO of Briogeo — a popular natural hair care line that's received rave reviews in publications such as Allure and InStyle — there are undoubtedly plenty of accolades Twine could boast about. But she chooses to start her bio from a humbler place, stating: "Nancy Twine is no newcomer to the beauty-sphere — in fact, she made her first foray into the world of natural product formulation at the ripe age of five.
The rest of her bio similarly focuses on Twine's strengths as someone who's able to take hair care "back to basics". The bio focuses on why Twine made the decision she did to start her company, and what ultimately drives her.
Similarly, you might consider using your personal bio as an opportunity to highlight your bigger purpose or vision. As Twine demonstrates, sometimes it's best to keep it simple, and let your message resonate with the right audiences. I gravitated towards Mouzon's bio from the first sentence: "I'm obsessed with leveling the playing field. The language used throughout Mouzon's bio is authentic, real, and honest. Consider, for instance, the beginning of the second paragraph, where she admits, "While building a brand may have looked effortless from the outside, starting a business at age 23 with no resources or funding quickly forced me to realize that early-stage entrepreneurship was anything but transparent.
Ultimately, this bio doesn't just focus on Mouzon's impressive background By focusing on the reader, Mouzon effectively demonstrates the real power of a good bio: the power to convert newcomers into leads and customers. As an avid Zumba fan, I was excited to include this one in the list. Perez styles his LinkedIn bio as a short story, starting with his background as a hard-working teen who held three jobs by age His bio tells the fun and fascinating origin story of Zumba, in which Perez, an aerobics teacher in Florida at the time, forgot his music for class and used a Latin music cassette tape instead His bio continues, "Shortly after he was connected to Alberto Periman and Alberto Aghion and Zumba was officially created What I like best about this bio is Perez's decision to use the space to tell the story of his business, rather than list out his accomplishments.
It provides a more real and colorful introduction to Perez, and immediately makes him feel both relatable and inspirational. If you're a marketer, you've likely heard of Ann Handley. Her list of credentials is lengthy, and if she really wanted to, she could go on and on and on about her accomplishments. But when people list out all their accomplishments in their bios, they risk sounding a little egotistical.
Sure, you might impress a handful of people with all those laurels, but many people who read your bio will end up feeling either intimidated or annoyed. Think about it: Is that how you want the majority of your readers to feel when they read your bio?
To minimize the egoism that comes with talking about yourself, think about how you can list out your accomplishments without sounding like you're bragging. Ann does this really well, choosing a tone in her bio that's more approachable. Best of all, Ann chooses to focus on her readers' challenges and motivations, rather than her own. For instance, she writes, "Ann Handley writes and speaks about how businesses can escape marketing mediocrity to achieve tangible results.
And she will inspire you to do work you're proud of. Follow the link and you'll be led to a page dedicated to a fuller bio, which she's divided into two parts: a "short version" literally a bulleted list of key facts and a "long version," which includes traditional paragraphs.
There's something in there for everyone. Instagram is a notoriously difficult platform on which to write a good bio. Similar to Twitter, you simply don't have room for a professional bio that includes everything about you. And because Instagram is primarily a mobile app, many viewers are reading about you passively on their mobile device. Instagram's limited bio space requires you to highlight just your most important qualities, and blogging icon Rebecca Bollwitt does so in her own Instagram bio in an excellent way.
Rebecca's brand name is Miss, and cleverly uses emojis in her Instagram bio to tell visitors exactly what makes her a valuable content creator. Take a look in the screenshot below:. Starting with a trophy emoji, Miss says she's an award-winning blogger. I haven't even looked at her pictures yet and the introduction of her bio has already sucked me in.
The rest of her bio follows suit, breaking up the text with an appropriate emoji and a perfect collection of nouns to tell me who she is as a person. She even links out to her husband's Instagram account after the heart emoji an adorable addition , and assures her followers that all of her pictures are authentically hers.
Take a lesson from Miss, and show your personal side. Just because you're branding yourself as a professional doesn't mean you have to take your human being hat off. Often your most personal attributes make for the best professional bio content. She's written content for HubSpot's Marketing Blog for years, and her blog author bio has caught my eye since before I ever started working for HubSpot.
Back then, it started with, "Corey just took a cool vacation. What I love most about Corey's bio is that it's a great example of how to deliver information about yourself without taking things too seriously. And in this context, that's totally appropriate.
Despite having a number of impressive accomplishments under her belt, she simply doesn't like displaying them publicly. So, she prefers making her author bio a little more "light. Her bio pictured below reads, "Corey is a Bruce Springsteen fan who does content marketing, in that order. It works in this particular context because, at HubSpot, our blog authors often prefer to make themselves as friendly and approachable as possible — while letting the content speak for itself.
It helps that authors' social media accounts are located right below our names and above our pictures. Your blog goes a long way in creating the correct image with a bio. Thanks for the input. One way I was able to create my own personal brand was by using a new website called personavita.
It builds credibility and others can validate my work. You can also create different Bios based on who you are showing it to. I think it really sets me apart. Thank you for the tips. This site has given me a much better feel for the whole thing.
Keep an ey on my site for the updated version. I had the same problem lol I call myself a writer, author but this at first was so freaking difficult to write until I found this web site to break it completly down to like what first grade level for me. Thank you. I really enjoyed the breakdown of the other bio and used that to help me get started writing mine.
Thanks for posting this tool to the web. Over and over again, I recreate the wheel college course after college course and more recently for my introduction into the civilian arena. I am more confident now that I have this standardized method of writing bios in hand. Army Strong! Martin: Absolutely! Your bio is one of the most powerful tools to control first impressions.
EASanders: The principles of bio writing apply to all fields. Sometimes it takes inspiration from other people to compellingly talk about ourselves. Sapp: Great! The beauty of your bio is that once you consciously sit down and write it once, then you have a strong foundation that you can tweak for the rest of your life.
Really good information…especially the getting feedback part. While we may not want to hear it, we NEED it sometimes. Thanks for the tips. They are timely, since I am just going through a total rebrand! Maybe it would be a great idea to answer questions in Quora, Yahoo Answers and the like. Share them. TIps 3, 5, and 6 were especially helpful for me.
I also find useful this article on how to write a biography so I recommend reading it as well. I also find really helpful suing samples. Thank you so much for this great blog. You wrote lot of valuable information about how to write Personal Biography.
I like your post. I agree to all of your points that you have mentioned. For me, the key to this article is section 6. I think the people who make the decisions based on biographies are looking for something different, a way to truly distinguish one person from another.
A story gives you a lot of flexibility and opportunity to qualify yourself; a list is often reduced to a quantity. Dave mentions two specifics; there are dozens more opportunities. This could be an important consideration if you have been stuck for a while in a job that TRULY sucks.
Never hurts to show people you are compassionate, or generous, or kind. Someone at a networking event who wants to learn more about you. A potential client or customer looking to get more info before working with you. It can make or break whether someone wants to take the next step and work with you. Is your personal bio helping or hurting your career?
Learn how to create a winning bio for any profile with our free tool. Click Here To Get Started. Write a winning personal bio in minutes. Learn how with our reputation management tool. What information you include is up to you. Most biographies, regardless of their length and target audience, will provide basic facts like the time and place in which the person lived.
But other, more involved details will depend largely on the situation — and on the writer. Provide only factual information, but do so in a vivid way. Review how to engage the reader for tips and strategies that can help you do just that. You may also find these examples of compelling hooks to be good sources of bio-writing inspiration.
All rights reserved. Key Elements. Parts of a Biography: Key Elements to Include The first step in writing a biography is to decide what to include. Start With Basic Facts About the Person Consider the length of the biography - this will help determine how much, or how little, information you should include, and how in-depth that information should be. Expand to Include In-Depth Information What is included in a biography will become more complex as the biography gets longer: the more words you have to use, the more facts you can consider for inclusion.
A few key components you may want to include in a longer biography are: birth and childhood - Providing details about the time and place someone was raised will give your readers historical context.
For example, when writing about a s civil rights activist, share information about what type of situation the person grew up in. Focus on notable events, such as the start of a relationship, a dramatic life change or another major turning point.
What legacy did they leave behind? Consider Your Audience The key to writing a great biography is really found within this idea: choose facts that are both relevant and interesting to your audience. Bio to Introduce a New Employee If you're writing a short biography that will be sent out in a company-wide email to introduce a new employee, keep in mind the occasion and audience. This kind of bio should focus on the person's work history and experience, with perhaps a few personal facts that will help co-workers get to know the new team member.
Such information isn't appropriate for the situation or for the target audience. On the other hand, that information might be highly relevant if you're writing a biography that will be used in a psychological study. Writing for an Unknown Audience Of course, you won't always know who your target audience is — if you're writing a book, for example, you can't always tell who will read it.
In such a situation, a good approach is to focus primarily on what makes this person special, and target your research accordingly. A biography about someone who achieved a great scientific discovery may focus on the person's education and early experiments that led to the great discovery. These are the things that people reading about the subject are probably interested in learning.
Choose Your Focus Knowing how you'd like to divide the story and what points you'd like to discuss will help you determine what information is most important. Sample Biography for a Student Student bios should include current information and future goals.
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